Romney closes big: ‘Love of country’ vs. ‘Revenge’

Romney closes big: ‘Love of country’ vs. ‘Revenge’
November 3, 2012 | 9:11 pm

WEST CHESTER, Ohio

About midway through Mitt Romney’s speech to a crowd of as many as 30,000 who had gathered for a chilly, outdoor, red-white-and-blue Friday night rally in this suburb of Cincinnati, close Romney aide Stuart Stevens wandered through the throng by himself, getting a feel for how the audience was reacting to Romney’s words. Stevens does that sometimes, listening to the thoughts of people who have no idea they’re talking to someone who has Romney’s ear and probably wrote the very phrases they’re hearing. On Friday, he stepped into the largest gathering that Romney has drawn in the entire campaign.

I ran into Stevens in one corner of the crowd, and we chatted a little. Romney, he said, was using his last campaign days “to remind people of the basic choice — it’s a status quo versus change election, always has been.” Then Stevens grew quiet as Romney reached a critical part of the speech.

“Now, throughout this campaign President Obama has tried to convince you that these last four years have been a success,” Romney said.

“There it is — that’s it,” Stevens whispered.

“He wants to take all the things he did in his first term — the stimulus, the borrowing, ‘Obamacare,’ all the rest — and then try them all over again,” Romney said.

The crowd booed.

“But our big dreams will not be satisfied with the small agenda that’s already failed us,” Romney continued. “And today — did you see what President Obama said today? He asked his supporters to vote for revenge — for revenge.”

The audience seemed genuinely stunned, taking in its collective breath.

“Instead, I ask the American people to vote for love of country,” Romney said, drawing the longest and loudest applause of the night.

Stevens seemed enormously satisfied with Romney’s performance. A few hours later, that portion of Romney’s speech would become a 30-second commercial for the closing days of the campaign. It began with Romney asking if the crowd had heard what Obama said, then cutting to the president, at a rally earlier in the day in Springfield, Ohio, saying, “Don’t boo, vote. Vote. Voting’s the best revenge.” Then it cut back to Romney asking people to vote for love of country, ending on a black slide with a simple question: “What is your reason for voting?”

Obama said “revenge” about 1:30 Friday afternoon. Team Romney saw it on the candidate’s bus after a rally in Wisconsin. Romney himself wanted it in that night’s speech, and it came out of his mouth at the West Chester rally about 8:30, with a campaign camera mounted on a big boom to catch it all. By Saturday morning it was one of the most striking ads of the campaign.

Obama’s “revenge” remark was valuable to Romney not because it could be turned into an attack ad. “Revenge” was valuable because it underscored, a thousand times, Romney’s new emphasis on the bigness of his own campaign versus the smallness of Obama’s. Romney’s closing argument is filled with words and phrases that convey a largeness of vision: destiny, renewal, purpose, better life, better days, better future, fresh start, new beginning, a bigger, better country. In the campaign’s final days, Romney is pushing hard on the idea that things really can improve with new leadership; in his West Chester speech, Romney used the word “better” a total of 15 times.

A critical part of the theme is that Romney is now asking people to join him in a larger cause. In the past, especially after sustaining serious damage from the “47 percent” video, Romney made clunky references to wanting to represent 100 percent of Americans. Now, as he finishes, Romney has settled on a more graceful way to make the “bigger, better country” argument fully inclusive. The key moment came at the end of the West Chester speech.

“We’ve journeyed far and wide in this great campaign for America’s future…” Romney said. “The door to a brighter future is there. It’s open. It’s waiting for us. I need your vote. I need your help. Walk with me. Walk together…”

The crowd erupted in cheers of ROMNEY! ROMNEY! ROMNEY! and then WE WANT MITT! WE WANT MITT! WE WANT MITT! It was a bigger, better moment.

In September, when the campaign was going through a rocky time in the wake of “47 percent” and other missteps, former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan wrote a much-discussed Wall Street Journal column entitled “Time for an Intervention” in which she blasted the Romney campaign’s strategy, and especially the attitude betrayed by “47 percent” video. “That’s too small and pinched and narrow,” Noonan wrote. “You have to have more respect than that, and more affection, you don’t write anyone off, you invite everyone in. Reagan in 1984 used to put out his hand: ‘Come too, come walk with me.’ Come join, come help, whatever is happening in your life.”

The Romney campaign and Noonan have had a difficult relationship, certainly so after the column. Many insiders were irritated by Noonan’s critique; some thought she was simply trying to draw attention to herself. Others quietly passed word to Noonan that they thought she was right. But the bottom line is that in West Chester, as well as in an earlier speech near Milwaukee, Romney invited everyone to walk with him to a bigger, better future. At the end of this long campaign, and with Romney’s opponent telling supporters that voting is the best revenge, Romney’s words sounded just right. And they got an enormously positive response. Romney had found just the note to end a long, long campaign.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/romne...ntry-vs.-revenge/article/2512532#.UJZvSYbNlx2

 

Voting is definitely the best revenge for having to listen to all the cowpies TeamRomney has tried to blanket Ohio with.

 

The problem with a romney victory is: people haven't really had enough of the socialism yet.

 

I see our resident racist, RCG, lives of the 'revenge' motive just like the other liberal slim Obama is playing to.

 

So voting for a socialist, and muslim sharia law sympathizer is the best revenge for democraps?

That's funny because I spell revenge: "SUCCESS" there's no substitute for it.


The competing ideals couldn't be more stark.

 

Well, there you go.

The post speaks for itself.

 

Right instead of prospering via your own merits you think you can steal it from others.

 

Phoenix, you want to talk revenge? Imagine what will happen to rcg when anarchy breaks out here, which it will, and he becomes an instant victim at the hands of his own kind?:eek:

Lost souls like rcg are their own worst enemies, and deservingly so...